New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): Tata Sons is expected to send in their expression of interest (EoI) for national carrier Air India on Monday, industry insiders said.

According to highly placed sources, Tata Sons which owns the industrial conglomerate Tata Group will send in a direct EoI to buy out the government's stake in the airline.

"Tata Sons will be submitting the EoI," highly placed sources told IANS.

However, when contacted an official spokesperson of the Group declined to comment.

Speculations have been rife over several months regarding Tata's interest in their erstwhile airline.

Notably, it was Tata's who started Air India prior to the nationalisation of the airline in the 1960s.

The last date of EoI submission is Monday.

Besides the Tatas, a group of Air India employees led by the airline's Commercial Director Meenakshi Mallik is also expected to send in their EoI.

In October, the Centre in an aggressive push to off-load its stake in the national carrier decided to invite bids for Air India, based on the company's enterprise value.

The change in criteria will allow for the bidding to take place on the current value of the assets and other resources of Air India.

The deadline for the bid submission was also been extended.

The deadline for submitting the bids was that time extended to December 14 from October 30.

Similarly, the deadline for announcing the name of those short-listed has also been extended.

The new date for announcement of short-listed bidders is December 28.